Runaway: Far From Home
by Werewolf of Suburbia
Summary: Slight AU. 12 yr old Draco Malfoy has run away. But where has he gone? He's joined the group that seeks Paradise and runs from friend and foe alike. And he has found the Missing 6. But will they ever stop running? Or will the war find them first?
1. Missing: Draco Malfoy

Running. It was all the girl knew. She had always run, for how long, she didn't know. What she DID know, however, was that she needed to run. Running was her lifeline in more ways then one. Running kept her alive in ways that nothing else did. The girl wasn't exactly sure why she was running, but the girl wasn't going to question it. If it kept her alive for one more day, then that was all that mattered.

The girl knew that if any of her former owners—they certainly weren't family—ever caught her; she'd be in for it. But she also knew that none could ever help her. Sometimes she would turn into a wolf, and run in that form, as it was a great runner. No one would want to help her that much the girl was sure of, mainly because of her wolf form. So she ran, from everybody.

What the girl couldn't understand was why she always seemed to have some sort of company. Running next to her was a black-haired boy with emerald green eyes. He himself was being followed by an impressive posse, with two red-haired siblings—a brother and sister—and bushy-haired girl, a shy round-faced boy with brown eyes and a strange girl with dirty-blonde hair and a necklace of what looked like bottle caps.

The black-haired boy had been the first to join her on her never ending run from everywhere and everyone. He had only been about 4 when he was left outside once by his hateful relatives, and had seen her passing through the neighborhood. Curious, he had joined her, and had never seen that neighborhood again.

The duo passed through a couple of other neighborhoods, however, picking up others along the way. The bushy-haired girl had followed them out of curiosity; much like the boy had, and never saw her parents again. The red-heads and girl with the bottle cap necklace had lived in the same neighborhood, and had decided to join them, thinking it was a game.

The three were quick to discover, however, that this wasn't any game. Now, though, they didn't care. They ran away from home that night, and they didn't want to go back. They were no older then the girl they were originally joining, the blonde and red-head girl were actually a year younger then the rest of the group as it was, so they didn't understand it either.

They knew enough, however, to know that something was wrong, and that they could never go back. The round-faced boy with brown eyes had been picked up after them, and had joined to get away from his overbearing grandmother. One he hadn't seen since.

Following behind the group, looking lost and confused but never slowing or stopping, was a blonde the same age as the majority of group. He had been picked up while the group was running past a large castle, where he had been attending it like one would a boarding school.

It actually was a boarding school for young witches and wizards in training. The whole group was magical, the leader actually being a werewolf. He had seen them while shopping in the town located next to the castle, and upon realizing that they were running and never stopping, he had joined. He was expected to do things that he had no intention of doing, and the always running group offered a way out. He had only been a part of the werewolf-led group for about two days, and he still didn't understand why they were always running.

Like the girl, though, he never questioned it. He figured he would understand something in time, and besides, it was leading him to what freedom the group got. It almost seemed that they were looking for a promised land that did not exist, but they didn't know that. The blonde wizard was young, only about 12, and didn't understand the world much more then the group. He understood a little bit more, having been raised in it by his parents longer then they had, but he didn't understand it entirely. And the freedom the group offered was better then the path his father had chosen for him to follow.

The group really needn't understand the world as a whole. Instinct told them that they couldn't be a part of it, and that they had to run, to get away, far away. None of the group was capable of seeing the future by any means, but they knew, deep within their hearts of hearts, that there was no place for them. At least not here, not anywhere they had been so far. There was a promised land, and their place belonged there, but they had yet to find it.

So they ran. They looked, and they avoided people like the plague. They were well aware, at least on an instinctual basis, that they were not welcome. Not at home, nor at the castle, nor anywhere they had been so far.

And it was only the thought of finally belonging that drove them forward. That and the deep rooted fear of being found and dragged back to where they didn't belong.

They would not go back, no matter what.

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Albus Dumbledore was not having a good day. It had started out nice enough, but that was until he found that somebody had seemingly stolen his favorite robes, the ones he had every intention of wearing today. To make matters worse, the socks that he chosen for the day had holes in them.

Still, these were trivial matters. As such, while Albus acknowledged that it annoyed him, he was determined to not have a bad mood for such things as stolen robes and holey socks. Unfortunately for Albus Dumbledore, things were about to get a lot worse.

Albus ignored the annoyances of a soggy breakfast, the fact that his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was about to be hexed into next year by his Potions Master, and the spectacular prank pulled at lunch by the Weasley Twins that left him listening to his Deputy Headmistress ranting for a couple of hours straight.

However, he could not ignore a frantic Narcissa Black, no matter HOW hard he tried.

Narcissa Black had been married for several years to one Lucius Malfoy before things had changed drastically. Peter Pettigrew was found masquerading as a pet rat, and put on trail. Whilst on trail, he had given names of willing Death Eaters, and Lucius had been one of them. He had been attending, luckily enough, and arrested and admitted under truth serum to being a Death Eater very much so willingly.

He had been given the ultimate sentence, a Dementor's Kiss, several years prior. However, while the legacy of Lucius was no longer present, the evil man had left his mark, by pressing upon his young son, Draco, the importance of the Malfoy name and all that went with it. Afterwards, Narcissa went to live with her sister, Andromeda, who had been disowned for marrying what was known as a muggle—someone incapable of doing magic.

Albus had noted that Draco held to these beliefs, but it seemed that he was doing it for his father's sake more then anything else. Albus had seen that Draco was heading towards becoming a Death Eater—a follower of an evil wizard known as the Dark Lord Voldemort—but that he didn't want to.

Albus had been unaware of the fact that young Draco had followed the Weasley Twins when they had snuck down to the nearby wizarding village of Hogsmead, but he had noticed that Draco was in fact missing from lunch. At first he didn't think overly much about it, but he began to get nervous when he was reported as absent from his afternoon classes. His godfather, Severus Snape, and the aforementioned Potions Master, had looked into it, to see if he could help, and discovered that no one had seen the young Malfoy since that morning.

He had called in Narcissa, his mother, to inform her of this yesterday. Today, however, she seemed to think that it was a good idea to come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and scream at its Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, while on the edge of hysterics.

Albus had been listening and trying to comfort Narcissa for several hours now, with little success, when he heard a knock on his door. Wondering who it could be—and could they help him get out of this situation?—he invited the knocker in. The person—or rather, persons—who entered shocked the Headmaster very greatly.

He vaguely wondered why the Weasley Twins, Fred and George, were in his office. He waited, positive that his Deputy, Minerva McGonagall, was right behind them, and was further shocked when she didn't come in too. This meant that—surprise of all surprises—Fred and George were here by their own violation.

"May I be of service to you, gentlemen?" asked Albus, wondering why they were here.

The twins traded glances before Fred took a deep breath.

"Well, you see, it's like this—" he started.

"We had snuck down to Hogsmead using a secret entrance only we knew about to get some butterbeer for ourselves and Percy, because we needed some cheering up." George took over. The Twins were known for finishing their own sentences, and they alternated for the rest of their little monologue.

"As you know, yesterday is the day Ron and Ginny left and vanished…"

"So, naturally, Percy and we were feeling absolutely miserable. Fred and I decided that we needed something to cheer us up, and headed down to Hogsmead for some bottles of butterbeer…"

"And while we were down there, we saw something very odd. A group of kids, most of them looking to be around the age Ron would be now, were running through town…"

"And they seemed most anxious to be out of it and far away from the whole area. They seemed terrified of the townspeople…"

"Because they kept avoiding them as much as possible. As we watched this very interesting spectacle, something even more interesting happened."

"We saw a blonde boy join the group near the edge of town, and run off with them. At a distance, it was hard to make out any details…

"But we could see he wasn't any older then the group, and that he was in fact a blonde male."

"We're sorry to take this long to tell you, but we only just figured it out ourselves, but we think…"

"Draco Malfoy has joined the group, and disappeared with them." the twins finally chorused as one.

Narcissa sobbed harder at the thought that her darling might have willingly chosen to run away. She knew same as Albus that Draco was planning on following his father's footsteps, and that he didn't want to at all. The Twins looked guilty, like they thought Narcissa's problems were their fault.

"Thank you boys, for bringing us this information. In light of this, I think we'll let your illegal excursion into Hogsmead slide for the moment. Can you tell us any specifics of this group? Maybe descriptions of another member, or if it appeared to have a leader?" asked the Headmaster.

"Well, the leader of the group seemed to be a young girl, and from the glimpse we saw of her, she seems to have been abused in her past. We really didn't get all that good a look." answered Fred.

"There are male and female members of the group, although not all seem to be abused like their leader. I think they're all magical though, because they were in town, and seemed to be able to see the castle." George supplied.

"They also seemed to be intent on running away, although from what, I couldn't tell you, and they seemed very much so intent on never stopping till they reached someplace they can call a safe haven, although where that may be, I don't know, either." Fred offered.

"Can you give me descriptions of these children? We certainly can't have children, magical or not, running around in terror of the whole of humanity." said Dumbledore. Much to his disappointment, the Twins shook their heads.

"Sorry sir. We didn't get that good a glimpse. We're probably lucky enough to have seen the leader girl up close enough to tell she had been abused." they chorused.

"Well, thank you for your time and effort to help find young Mr. Malfoy. You may return to your common room now." he dismissed them, waving his hand as he did so. The Twins nodded and left, apologizing once again for taking so long. Albus looked thoughtful and wondered if it was possible that Ron and Ginny could still be alive.

It didn't seem likely, and he had forgotten this was the week that many children had gone missing, not just the two youngest Weasleys. Albus remembered it well…

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It had been a long week for Albus Dumbledore. Firstly, Harry Potter had been reported as missing from his relatives, and on top of that, the fact that his relatives had severely neglected him and verbally abused him had also come to light. Harry, who most of the wizarding world knew as their savior, the Boy-Who-Lived, had been placed on his relatives' doorstep by Albus himself the night after Voldemort had killed his parents, James and Lily.

Now, however, it appeared that doing so had been a bad choice. Or rather, never checking up on him had been a bad choice. He could have removed Harry from their "care" and perhaps he would be in Hogwarts right now, instead of missing.

Gathered witness statements said that Harry had been left outside by his relatives for that night—as punishment, questioning the relatives had proven, for supposedly hurting his cousin, which he didn't do at all—and, during the falling evening, had spotted a young girl, around his age, running through the neighborhood. Young as he was—he had only been 4—he didn't notice or question why she seemed to be running as if somebody was chasing her, somebody she was terrified of, only that she was there.

Having never seen her before, and naturally curious, Harry had run after her, and continued to follow her even after she left the neighborhood far behind. The last anyone ever saw of Harry Potter, he had been running with his new friend under the light of a brightly shining nearly full moon, straight out of the Surrey area.

Harry never was found, and a couple years later was declared dead. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, was released from Azkaban, where Peter Pettigrew framed him, not too long afterwards, and he continued to this day to look from him with help from his old friend Remus Lupin, who had also been very close to James and Lily.

However drastic Harry's disappearance had been, it would not be a first. Muggle Police were alerted to the fact that a young girl Harry's age, Hermione Granger, had also run away from home. Albus only got involved because it happened only days later, and seemed to involve the same girl and Harry himself was seen following her. Hermione, it turned out, was Muggleborn, a witch born to completely muggle parents.

A day later, Molly Weasley came to him, hysterical at the fact that her youngest son, Ronald, and her only daughter, Ginny, had also run away. Molly did not know why or where they had gone, only that they had. Molly was further joined by the Lovegoods, Cecil and his wife, Blythe, who were worried sick of the disappearance of their own daughter, Luna.

The last disappearance had been reported a couple of days later when Augusta Longbottom had reported her grandson, Neville, as missing too.

They searched high and low and never found one trace of them. Tracking charms were useless, as was proved by a miserable Arthur Weasley when he tried. A Point Me spell made the wand go wacko, spinning relentlessly for several minutes before the wand clattered to the floor and lay still. He had been trying it on Ron, but using it on any of the others had much the same effect.

A funeral was held for all of them—including the girl that had started the whole thing—and it was the saddest affair anybody had ever attended. The families were all very distraught about their children's deaths, and even the strange girl—who had been christened Eve, because her first appearance had been to little Harry during the evening—had people shed a few tears for her.

Albus spent the next few weeks afterwards in hiding, and nobody could ever find him. During that time, he wondered what he was thinking when he ignored Minerva's warnings about the Dursleys and what had happened to the little girl known as Eve, that she would continually run away from everybody like a hunted animal. He would probably never know….

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Albus could've cursed himself for not remembering that this was in fact the very same time all those poor children had run off and vanished from the face of the planet. Now it appeared that he had an answer to why "Eve" ran…she had been abused, and was probably running away from her abusers. Abuse was probably why she was terrified of humanity as a whole as well; young logic stating that anybody and everybody else she met would hurt her too.

Was it possible then, that Harry and the others were still alive? But then, how was it possible for them to trick the tracking charms so thoroughly? And why were they running? Harry and "Eve" had reasons and Albus hated the fact that they were in fact valid reasons, but what of the others? Draco was probably trying to escape his father's distant grasp. But Neville, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Luna all had loving homes. Their parents doted on them, and their lives were great. So why then did they run? Why are they still running now?

Albus did not have any answers, but he did his best to reassure Narcissa that he would do whatever it takes to find Draco, and herded her towards a childhood friend of hers, Severus. Then he sat and pondered many things, only some of which revolved around Draco Malfoy, and most of which involved a young abused little girl that refused to stop running…


	2. Forgot, but not Forgotten

Amber sighed as she came to a rest along a tree. They had managed to bypass several villages, and Amber was relived that they had made it through another one just now without anyone the wiser to their presence. Stopped as she was, she finally took a good look at her newest companion, Draco Malfoy. She cared little as to why he was joining the group, just that he was. He had also been part of the World, and knew it better then she did right now. What information would he yield?

"Why do you run? Why did you leave your families behind? You know they think you're dead?" Draco couldn't help but ask, having recognized the Weasleys, Harry, and Neville. And while he knew somewhat about certain things, like the miserable treatment Harry received by his relatives, he couldn't even begin to fathom why people with loving families like Neville, Ron and Ginny would run away.

"We not safe here. World bad, World hurt us. We find safety, we find Paradise. Only then we stop running." answered Luna. It was obvious that they were not anymore educated then they had been when they left. And considering they were only four or three at the time, that isn't saying a whole lot.

"Paradise? And what about you guys? Your parents loved you. They were so devastated when you were proclaimed dead. Don't you miss you families even the slightest?"

The terrified looks the blonde received was answer enough. Then Draco had a sudden thought.

"Do you even remember your parents? At all?"

Blank stares were his answer. Obviously not. Draco looked at them incredulously. How could they forget their parents? They weren't that old when they ran away. Draco could expect Harry and Amber to not remember their parents, they had only been infants when Harry became the Boy-Who-Lived, and Amber had been abused, so either she had lost her parents at the same age, or was trying to forget them because of it.

The others had parents who loved them, and they were 4 when they disappeared. How could they not remember? Draco was astounded. He remembered his father, even though he had been 6 when he was Kissed and killed. He even remembered his Aunt Bellatrix, who suffered much the same fate when questioned. So how could they not remember theirs?

Amber surveyed her surroundings. Noting the late hour, she proceeded to locate a hollowed tree big enough to house all of them for that night.

"Come. Sleep now. Tomorrow we run more. We must escape. Must find Paradise. Only then, we rest."

Nobody, not even Draco, protested this order, and they all settled in for the night.

Tomorrow, they would start anew. Tonight, they slept.

* * *

July 10th, 1995, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Little Taylor Baldwin was excited—as excited as you can possibly be. Today would be the first time the 6-yr-old would ride the subway to Washington DC, in order to visit the zoo with his mommy. He would even get to see the research place were the clouded leopards were kept!

He was rather impatient to get underway, but when they went underground with the crowds and got into the train, it all disappeared. Clinging to his mommy's hand, he stared, wide-eyed, at the people getting on and off at the various stations and got even more excited then he had been before when the train went into a underground tunnel that didn't seem to end.

Looking out the window as the lights flashed by, trying to catch the blue ones that were interspersed amongst the white, he caught a flash of glitter, like diamonds in the light.

"What's that mommy?" he asked.

"What's what?" his mother, Jackie, was having a hard time keeping pace with her energetic 6 year old.

"I saw something sparkle outside."

"Nonsense, Taylor. There's nothing in that tunnel that could even remotely sparkle, even in the brightest of lights. It was just your imagination."

For all his life, Taylor would insist he saw something. This insistence led him onto a path that left him a detective, and shot in action just before his 46th birthday. No one ever believed he had actually seen something. But he did.

He had seen eyes glittering in the light of the tunnel. The many pairs of eyes that belonged to Amber the werewolf and her group of runaway wizards. All much older, much wiser, and much more worn and tired. But all still determined to find Paradise, and still determined not to be caught.

Faded from memory were the families they left behind. Vague dreams of faceless people that once held an important meaning to them were no longer remembered, however much they should have been. Their parents, their brothers, their teachers and friends. All forgotten by the group that never rested.

But they themselves were not forgotten. Narcissa Black was determined, no matter what, to find her son. Albus Dumbledore was determined to find his charge, Harry Potter, and the parents were determined to get their kids back, no matter the cost.

But their children were intelligent. Oh, they may not be able to add 2 plus 2 and get 4, but they could outsmart their parents 100 to 1. For every step and lead their parents investigated, they were already half a country ahead. They were not going back, and they would not be taken easily, especially not by people they didn't even remember anymore.

Voldemort, his base of Death Eaters destroyed from outside in, did not come back to life. He died a slow, lonely death in Albania. Harry came close, but not close enough. No one really cared, not when missing children had to be found. Missing children that would not be found.

It would be a long time before anybody ever found their happiness again. And they would find it in Paradise, with one another once again. It was sad that they would have to suffer first before it could be found.

* * *

I do not know where any of this is coming from. I really don't. And I can't really say how many more chapters we've got coming, either. And before I forget…

I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER!

Again, this is all so freakin random it's scary. This piece of work, and the one before it, is just my imagination taking control of my hands and making my fingers type words on my laptop. Unfortunately, my imagination has neglected to tell me where it is going with this, and doesn't seem inclined to fill me in anytime soon. As it is, this will probably be updated sporatically, not that I don't already update randomly as is, but this will be even more random then normal becuase I, to qoute Charlie Brown (Whom I also don't own) "Wish I knew what's going on."

Werewolf of Suburbia


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